The disinfection process is a critical task in hospitals and
clinics and takes place in many different stages and processes in healthcare operation. The majority of the disinfection processes take place manually, and it’s time taking and tedium process.
Nowadays, automation finds its way into the process to help the healthcare operators to increase the efficiency of the disinfection process and reduce the pressure on the human asset during the global pandemic. Though, disinfection should not be mistaken with sterilization and hygiene, as are a higher degree of infection prevention and control processes.
The disinfection process, along with housekeeping in hospitals, provides additional means to improve the efficiency of disinfection by using liquid chemicals and ultraviolet light in common areas, wards, and patient terminal disinfection of rooms. The disinfection process mainly fights “Hospital-acquired infections (H.A.I)”.
As per the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 1.7 million HAI cases happen and cause 99,000 death per year. A similar study in Europe shows that 25,000 death occurs per year due to H.A.I. The staggering number of casualties due to HAI shows the importance of the efficacy of the disinfection process in hospitals.
There are many academic articles and studies around disinfection automation and the efficacy of automation in the process. One study by Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, V.A, published in 2018, concluded as follows:
“Touchless ultraviolet disinfection (UVD) devices effectively reduce the bioburden of epidemiologically relevant pathogens, including Clostridium difficile. During a 25-month implementation period, UVD devices were deployed facility-wide for the terminal disinfection of rooms that housed a patient who tested positive for C difficile. The deployment was performed with structured education, audit, and feedback, and resulted in a multidisciplinary practice change that maximized the UVD capture rate from 20% to 100%.” (Fleming et al. 2018)
Another study that reviewed previous studies of no-touch disinfection methods to examine the result of collective works, and published in January 2018, concluded as follows: “Ultraviolet light no-touch disinfection technology may be effective in preventing C.D.I and V.R.E infection.” (Marra et al., 2018)
Service Robots Definitions
The service robots can play a significant role in the disinfection automation process. As per the International Organization of Standardization, a “Service Robots” is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment, excluding industrial automation applications. A service robot assists us by completing a job that is dirty, dull, distant, dangerous, or repetitive, including household chores.
According to ISO8373: “Robots require a degree of autonomy, which is the ability to perform intended tasks based on current state and sensing, without human intervention.” For service robots, this ranges from partial autonomy to full autonomy.
Disinfection service robots are categorized in the range of biased autonomous robots, as they require setup. However, the degree of
automation varies from robot to robot, and they are getting near to full automation based on the technologies used in them.
The techniques and algorithms used in hospital service robots are machine vision, navigation, collision prevention, timing the integrated gadgets’ operation at the destination, self-charging at the charging booth, sensing the environment and route planning, and report back the session processes.
Reference:
Michele Fleming MSN, RN, CIC, Amie Patrick BSN, RN, Mark Gryskevicz,
Nadia Masroor MPH, BS, Lisa Hassmer MBA, Kevin Shimp MSN, RN, Kaila Cooper MSN,
RN, CIC, Michelle Doll MD, MPH, Michael Stevens MD, MPH, Gonzalo Bearman MD,
MPH – Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, VA
Deployment of a touchless ultraviolet light robot for
terminal room disinfection: The importance of audit and feedback
0196-6553/© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection
Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.09.027
Alexandre R. Marra, MD; Marin L. Schweizer, PhD; Michael B.
Edmond, MD
No-Touch Disinfection Methods to Decrease
Multidrug-Resistant Organism Infections: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:20–31
© 2017 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of
America. All rights reserved. 0899-823X/2018/3901-0003. DOI:
10.1017/ice.2017.226